Gousto raises £500,000 investment from food industry veterans

Online boxed recipe delivery business Gousto has announced the completion of £500,000 investment, led by a group of food industry veterans alongside additional Angel CoFund backing.

Launched a year ago by Timo Schmidt and James Carter in 2012, Gousto delivers its customers boxed ingredients for specific recipes in their exact portions – a model that the company claims eliminates waste and promotes healthy eating.

The founders recently pitched the Gousto concept on the BBC show Dragons’ Den but left without investment after the Dragons expressed concern that the terms they were offering would lead to conflict with existing investors. Unnammed food industry veterans have contributed the bulk of the £500,000 investment, backing Gousto with £130,000 following a £250,000 initial deal. Regional Growth Fund-backed investment syndicate the Angel CoFund has also invested £120,000.

The investment will be used to improve the delivery service to deal with growing customer numbers, with the food industry investors also set to offer support with packaging, sourcing and logistics.

Timo Schmidt, CEO and co-founder of Gousto, commented: “At Gousto we want to share our vision of making it easy to cook delicious and healthy meals at home.

“This latest round of funding means we can both improve and grow our service and we’re delighted that our new investors are showing so much confidence in us.”

George Whitehead, chairman of the Angel CoFund, said: “Gousto is a business with major potential that needs upfront investment to enable it to really take off. The Angel CoFund is set up for exactly this kind of business – we want to get cash to good businesses that can then scale fast.

“The Dragons missed out on this investment in part because they didn’t have our advantage of spending the time to get to know the business, team and leading industry co-investors. A part of me however looks forward to the Dragons wincing at their missed opportunity when they see Gousto continue to grow from strength to strength!”